Building While Flying

Molly Fienning is the Co-Founder and CEO of Red Clay Hot Sauce, a modern Southern hot sauce company based in Charleston, SC. Prior to Red Clay, Molly co-founded Babiators, the leading sunglasses brand for babies and kids.

Molly joins Katie on the Building While Flying podcast to talk about her journey from Harvard Business School to silent investor to CEO of Red Clay. She shares lessons learned from each step of her journey, and how each experience informed the next. She talks about what it means to be a good CEO and leader, and shares a potentially surprising opinion about public relations!

In-flight topics:

• How to be an effective CEO
• Difference between goals and journeys
• Lessons from one business to the next
• Scaling a brand during the pandemic
• The importance of traditional public relations
• …and more!

Connect with Molly Fienning: Babiators website: https://babiators.com/ Red Clay website: https://redclayhotsauce.com/ Molly LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-fienning-32789237/ Molly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mollyfienning/ Red Clay Insta: https://www.instagram.com/redclayhotsauce/

In part 2 of our Building While Flying Q&A, Joe Quattrone, SVP, Head of Education, answers more questions from our listeners.

Topics include:

• Creating content efficiently
• Working with small ad budgets
• How to market on LinkedIn
• Marketing trends to know
• OOH media

Like what you heard? Want to have YOUR questions answered on the podcast? Connect with us on Instagram, Twitter, and/or LinkedIn and tell us what you want to know.

Connect with Joe: LinkedIn / Twitter

In this special edition of Building While Flying, James Orsini, President of The Sasha Group, and Joe Quattrone, SVP, Head of Education, answer questions from our listeners.

Topics include:

• How to make successful career pivots
• Mentorship as a two-way street
• Ageism in the marketing industry
• How to prioritize tasks and projects
• Buying and selling SMEs

Like what you heard? Want to have YOUR questions answered on the podcast? Connect with The Sasha Group on Instagram, Twitter, and/or LinkedIn and tell us what you want to know.

Connect with James: LinkedIn / Twitter Connect with Joe: LinkedIn / Twitter

Jes Wolfe is the CEO of Rebel Girls, an entertainment-driven, global empowerment brand dedicated to inspiring and instilling confidence in girls around the world.

In her conversation with Maribel, Jes shares her journey from the finance world to CEO. She talks about what makes Rebel Girls so special: the opportunity to inspire girls and children everywhere and instill confidence from a young age. She emphasizes the importance of creativity and diversity on teams, and why honoring intersectionality makes your business better.

In-flight topics:

• Jes's background
• Rebel Girls's mission
• Growth of Rebel Girls
• Advice for business leaders on intersectionality
• How Rebel Girls will impact the futures of girls everywhere

Bruce Smith is the Founder and CEO of Hydrow, an at-home full-body rowing experience that connects the user with the natural world through Hydrow's patented design and technology. Bruce is also an accomplished rower and coach himself; he led the U.S. National Rowing Team to a bronze medal in the 2015 world rowing championships.

In this episode, Bruce shares where his journey with rowing and water began, and how it led him to Hydrow. He talks about how rowing isn't just great fitness for the body—it also has a profound impact on the mind and human behavior. Bruce also emphasizes Hydrow's dedication to water quality and safety, and the connection between rowers and keeping waterways around the world in good condition. All of this fuses together in a unique brand and experience that offers something to everyone around the world.

In-flight topics:

• Hydrow's unique technology
• Hydrow's mission
• Water quality and safety
• Challenges building up to launch
• Lessons learned in leadership
• …and more!

Relevant Links: Hydrow website: ​https://hydrow.com/ Hydrow Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hydrow/ Hydrow Twitter: https://twitter.com/hydrow_by_Crew Hydrow YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HydrowRower/featured Bruce LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-smith-aa756b1/

Alice Kim is a fashion industry veteran with more than two decades of experience. She's now the Founder and CEO of PerfectDD, a sustainable clothing brand made specifically for mid-sized women with size DD and up.

In this episode, Alice chats with Maribel about every step of her journey: from starting her career in finance to leading PerfectDD today. Throughout their conversation, Alice shares lessons she learned along the way and offers advice for fellow entrepreneurs. She also emphasizes the importance of staying focused on your audience and incorporating your values into how you run your business.

In-flight topics:

• Finding a product-market fit
• Importance of data in brand building
• Focusing on a specific audience
• Building a sustainable business
• Living your values through your business
• …and more!

Kyra Peralte is a serial creator and entrepreneur who understands human needs and emotions, and creates products that meet those needs. Her most recent project is The Traveling Diary Tour, which connects women around the world through written entries in a shared journal. She's also the creator of Mermaid Quest, a fantasy game for kids with a focus on representation.

In this episode of Building While Flying, Kyra joins Maribel Lara, SVP of Consulting at The Sasha Group, to talk about her journey, where she started, and the stories behind her work. Kyra shares how challenges she faced inspired her products, and how adjusting to the pandemic lifestyle inspired The Traveling Diary Tour. She truly draws on human connection and emotions to create solutions for challenges faced by humans around the world.

IN-FLIGHT TOPICS:

• Kyra's background
• Adjusting to pandemic lifestyle changes
• Creating products that solve problems
• Origin of The Traveling Diary
• Vision for the future of The Traveling Diary
• Creation of the Mermaid Quest game
• …and more!

Doron Petersan is President of Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats, a beloved vegan bakery in Washington, DC—and soon-to-be national e-commerce powerhouse. Doron has played a huge role in paving the way for vegan options in the mainstream that actually taste good. She's also a two-time champion of the Food Network competition "Cupcake Wars."

In her conversation with Katie, Doron shares the challenges she's faced throughout her career: from breaking into the vegan food industry, to creating vegan food that tastes good, to changing people's behaviors, and learning the business side of running a vegan bakery. She also emphasizes the important role her mission plays in growing her brand and business. Lastly, Doron talks about shifting from brick-and-mortar bakeries to e-commerce and wholesale, and what that means for the future of Sticky Fingers.

IN-FLIGHT TOPICS:

• Challenges of breaking into the vegan food industry
• Learning the business side of a bakery
• Running a mission-based brand
• Why shifting to e-commerce is the right move
• Lessons learned from shifting to e-commerce
• …and more!

Tony Samadani is the Co-Owner and Head of Strategic Partnerships at The Good News Network, a platform founded in 1997 as an antidote to the barrage of negativity experienced in the mainstream media. Tony joined the team in 2016 after a Google search for good news amidst a tumultuous, stressful time led him to the Good News Network website. The "plethora" of good news stories hooked him almost immediately.

Tony's conversation with Mickey touches on more than just the benefits of consuming good news. In this episode of Building While Flying, Tony dives deep into how passions, purpose, and time are all related: if something fits within one of your three passion categories, then it's worth your time. He shares how purpose and passion can guide your life decisions, and discusses why time is the most important currency.

There's a lot coming down the Good News Network pipeline, too! Tony talks about Good Currency, a brand they're launching soon to "gamify good" and help others experience the impacts of good news in whole new ways.

In-flight topics:

• History of The Good News Network (0:48 - 3:55)
• What does "Social Good Entrepreneurship" mean? (4:15 - 6:15)
• Time as currency (6:40 - 10:45)
• Launch of the Good Currency brand (12:20 - 17:00)
• Tony's in-flight checklist (22:20 - 24:50)
• ...and more!

Relevant Links:

Good News Network: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/

Good News Network Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegoodnewsnetwork

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/goodnewsnetwork/

Tony LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonysamadani/

Farah Allen is an accomplished leader in the media technology space. Her career spans more than 20 years, from management consulting to founder and CEO. She currently serves as CEO of The Labz, a no-code-required digital design platform that creates high-end, communication-rich websites for virtual experiences.

In her conversation with Mickey, Farah opens up about her journey from consulting to founder, and shares some lessons from consulting that helped her as a founder. She talks about how the pandemic inadvertently helped direct her strategy and path forward in building The Labz. She shares some of her challenges in pivoting the business and building the right team to build The Labz into what she knew it could be. Farah even dives into Web3 and the metaverse, and shares some of her predictions for adoption and how it will impact technology moving forward.

IN-FLIGHT TOPICS:

• Building a business during the pandemic
• Recreating events online in an engaging way
• Using The Labz tech in education
• Building the right team for the business
• Lessons from her consulting career
• Planning for Web3 and the metaverse
• …and more!

RELEVANT LINKS:

Farah LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/farahallen

Farah IG: https://www.instagram.com/ceofarah1/

The Labz: https://www.thelabz.com/

The Labz IG: https://www.instagram.com/thelabzlive/